The Toof Shall Set You Free

I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning about two weeks ago. As with far too many things in my life, routine became ridiculous.

I’m now:

missing a front tooth;

wearing a little prosthetic device to hide this fact from the adoring public;

getting ready for the implant that’s going into my head after roughly 16 weeks of healing;

and, amazingly, looking forward to the so-called permanent cap or crown that’ll be placed over the implant about 8-10 weeks after I heal from getting the implant.

All of this for the low price of a college education for my boy Cooper, who was supposed to start college in three years. It now looks like that will have to be put off awhile.

Oh, and let’s not talk about the pain of surgery, tooth-pulling, bone grafts, swelling and sutures in my mouth. Let’s just agree that a lesser man probably wouldn’t be able to write his informative weekly newsletter.

As I said, all of this started when I went in for a routine cleaning. The woman who was doing the cleaning said we needed to do x-rays to update my file.

After seeing the pictures, she casually asked if my front tooth was “bothering” me.

Actually, for a while, it had been a real pain in the . . . head. I’d simply dismissed how particularly weird it felt for the past couple of months because that tooth’s been a problem since I was eight-years-old. That’s when I broke both of my front teeth by smacking them hard against a metal bar.

For more than four decades, I’ve endured root canals, new caps, odd colored caps, ill fitting caps, broken caps, caps just falling out for no good reason, swallowed caps, gum pain, random root pain, and a variety of other irritations.

So a continually bothersome front tooth is normal. No cause to even call a dentist. It honestly was just a coincidence that I had an appointment.

(Another coincidence is that my younger brother Kyle also lost his front teeth when he was eight. I was 10 and we were playing Tarzan in our grandmother’s front yard on Thanksgiving Day. He stupidly rammed his front teeth into the top of my head as we ran toward each other. Man, it hurt. I had a headache for hours and was worried those tooth holes might get infected. My mother was very mad . . . At me. To this day, I don’t understand that.)

It just so happened that after all this time, the root of my old battered toof finally needed to be gone. Quickly. So, as of last Friday, it’s no more.

And now, I thpeak with a thlight lithp. I also had to duck my head to hide my mouth when a couple of constituents came up to me in a store, because I’d forgotten the little fake tooth when I left the house.

But I’m pleased at the success of my rule to have my teeth cleaned at least as often as the state does redistricting.

A good night

Last night, I hosted a UStream Town Hall meeting with the Democratic candidate for governor, Bill White.

It was a fun event, and a fun format. For around an hour, we took questions from Facebook, Twitter, and UStream about the campaign and the issues facing Texas. Lots of questions about education – which, frankly, is a pretty important sign.

Anyway, if you couldn’t see it – because, say, our highway infrastructure has utterly failed to keep up with our growth over the past 10 years and you were stuck in horrendous traffic – you can watch a recording of it here.

We’re going to be doing more of these live, interactive UStream video town halls with other candidates as the election gets closer. Stay tuned for details – and tune in.